My 25 year old boyfriend was told that he has excess sugar in his
urine. Does this mean that he has diabetes? Or may be in a high risk
category? I don't know a lot about diabetes, but am just curious as to
some questions we may ask when we visit the doctor again? Does anyone
have any suggestions? He is being tested again today.

Answer:

The presence of sugar in the urine usually means diabetes. (Sugar is present
in the urine in diabetes because the kidneys fail to hold onto it completely
when the sugar level in the blood is very high; the kidneys think sugar is
"good stuff" to hold onto, but can't hold onto all of it if the blood level
of sugar is above what's called the
threshold (about 180 mg/dl, which is well above the expected blood sugar levels of anyone without diabetes); people who don't have diabetes
rarely have a sugar above 150 mg/dl (and that only after a huge meal). So most of
the time, a positive test for urine sugar implies a high blood sugar, or, in
other words, diabetes.

There is a very rare exception: another disorder called renal glycosuria
exists, where the kidney's threshold of where it can't hold onto sugar is
much lower than the usual 180 mg/dl. In renal glycosuria, if the kidney's
threshold is at a level of about 100, it would be expected that the person
with the low threshold would routinely have sugar in the urine, since the
blood sugar in people without diabetes is frequently about 70-130 or so.

In order to distinguish diabetes from renal glycosuria, it might be
necessary to repeatedly measure blood and urine sugar levels. On the other
hand, if your boyfriend has a few very high blood sugar levels (well
over 140 fasting, or over 200 after eating), he has diabetes, and renal
glycosuria is excluded.

Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:08:52
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